ISKCON’s first Janmastami Festival

Well… first of 2009, at least! (maybe)

This last Saturday we celebrated our annual Krishna Festival in Pandavas Paradise with the residents of the nearby town, Alto Paraíso.  We also had some 18 guests drive up from Brasilia to sleep there, so we could spend Sunday together in a mini-retreat.

Alto Paraíso is a very special city in Brasil, known as the mystical capital of the country! So, when we have a festival, we get a great variety of people. We get hippies, seekers, New Agers and UFOlogists. We get babies, children, adults and the old alike! We get people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from as well as the rich people holidaying in the area. It’s quite an experience!

And they are all brought together by the sound of the Hare Krishna mantra, the Krishna-katha and the prasada!

We started out with an hour and a half of bhajan, playing some more Western melodies (such as Krishna Das). Gradually, as we played, the temple filled up with guests.

Then I spoke some words on the meaning of Janmastami and read some verses from the Srimad Bhagavatam, Chapters 1 and 2, on the importante of Krishna and Krishna-katha. We had a book table (actually a mat!) and my little speech was focused on getting them to buy the Gita and our Srimad Bhagavatam audio books (we have the whole first Canto, translation and purports, and the entire Krisna Book in MP3).

Then my wife lead a thundering kirtan. This is their favorite part.

People dance and run around in ecstasy. They jump and chant in wild abandon!

Aftewards we served prasada. They love our prasada. (And we love serving it!)

The next day, our 18 guests had a sweet mangala aratik (a little later than normal!). Then we chanted japa. We had some newcomers who learned to chant japa for the first time.

This was followed by a 90 minute Srimad Bhagavatam class on verses 1.2.6-8, where I again emphasized the importance of reading and studying the Gita and the Bhagavatam and the importante of bhakti above all other pursuits in life.

After a hearty breakfast we went on a little 90 mintue hike to our waterfalls, through the hills of Pandavas Paradise.

We finished off the mini-retreat with an opulent lunch and everyone went home very happy.

You can see lots more pictures from the festival and mini-retreat here.

JIVA – Part II

From the 18-25th of July we held the second JIVA retreat (see introduction here). This time we had almost a full house (15 people!). People came from different corners of the country, from the far north to the far south, as well as from Brasilia, Rio and São Paulo.

Every day there would be two main classes. In general, one would be more philosophical (general philosophy, guru-tattva, study of the temple songs, avatar theology, the Vedas, etc.) and the other more practical (how to prepare and offer prasada, Deity worship, Sanskrit pronunciation, etc.).

Students are constantly encouraged to take notes, and, for some classes, we also hand out, at the end, an essay covering the topics discussed.

The Deity worship class is a big hit. Students learn the theory and practice of arcana, and even learn to make ghee wicks.

Students also learn about Srila Prabhupada, how ISKCON is governed, and the BBT, as well as about other mathas and the ritviks.

We have an hour long japa session together every day and other time-slots are allocated for more japa. By the end of the JIVA this year 13 out of the 15 participants were managing to chant 16 rounds a day.

We have two aratiks a day. Mostly with a more meditative kirtan style, with everyone sitting down, but also some more lively Gaura Aratiks.

The ladies have a special program just for them: Women in Krishna Consciousness. This includes teaching them how to wear saris and dance in the temple. They love it!

We took the group on two nice outings during the retreat. They hiked our trails and swam in our waterfalls.

As they were taught the songs and how to play the kartals, students were encouraged to take turns practicing it, during aratiks and leading the “sarira” chant.

Speaking of “sarira”, the prasada was delicious, mostly very healthy and we had vegan dishes for every meal (we had a vegan couple present). Some of the fruits and veggies were from our organic garden.

For those of you who understand Portuguese, here you can see a video of the testimony of the participants.

And for lots of beautiful pictures, mostly taken by my wife, including lots of great bird pictures, click here.

We only pray that Srila Prabhupada may bless us with more such sweet service.

JIVA 2009 – Part I

In  my preaching efforts here in Brazil I try to give significant attention to devotees who have never lived in temple ashrams, to give them an easy introduction into a full Krishna conscious lifestyle. In Brazil there are very, very few full-time ashram residents. Krishna consciousness, therefore, for just about every devotee in Brazil, including the ones that get initiation, does not include ever living in an ashram.

Just going to Sunday program, or even helping out with the preaching programs, and reading Prabhupada’s books, still leaves some key areas of a good KC lifestyle uncovered. Some things are easily assimilated from reading or attending KC programs, such as how to chant japa, the philosophy, becoming vegetarian and avoiding drugs, alcohol, etc. But other details remain elusive, such as how exactly to offer prasadam, how to worship the Deity at home, how to apply tilaka, Vaishnava etiquette, etc.

For example, I noticed that a lot of people would hear about prasadam, would understand the importance of eating vegetarian foodstuffs and offering everything to Krishna… but just would not actually offer their food in their day to day lives. Why? Just because they were unsure as to how exactly that was supposed to be done, what the “rules” were. Knowing how to behave around devotees and devotional things, or in temples, is also one of those apparently very simple subjects that, nonetheless, baffles even people who go for years on end to courses and Sunday programs.

Sometimes, even after reading the Gita a few times and other Prabhupada books, listening to many lectures, people are sometimes still confused about simple philosophical points on karma, spiritual/material worlds, forms of God, etc.

With these needs in mind, we started offering a very special week-long retreat in Pandavas Paradise, called JIVA. In Portuguese  JIVA becomes an acronym for Intense Vaishnavism Workshop (Jornada Intensiva de Vaishnavismo). We held the first one last year and it was a real hit. We knew were onto something very valuable.

For these people, usually with busy jobs, hectic lifestyles and a whole non-KC family around them, the chance to spend a week in a spiritual environment, surrounded exclusively with like-minded practitioners, in pretty much the same level of advancement they’re in, was in and of itself a profound experience. Add to that an intense learning program to with all the basics (including home Deity worship), regular aratiks, group japa sessions, great prasadam and you can understand why, at the end, just about every single participant cried their hearts out when it came to sharing with the others what they felt. The natural beauty of Pandavas Paradise, 4000ft  high pure fresh air, pure spring water for bathing and drinking, waterfalls, incredible deep blue sky and bright sun are the cherry on the cake of the whole JIVA experience.

In my next post, I’ll share some more details and pictures from this year’s JIVA.

Weekend Gita Workshop in Porto Alegre

Last weekend we held our 4th Weekend Gita Workshop in Porto Alegre, covering chapters 7 and 8.

This was our biggest group yet, with 16 people. Since the last one was our smallest, I was enthused by the change. The devotee couple who organize this program in Porto Alegre, Vrajendra-nanda Das and Vraja-jana DD (both Param Gati Swami disciples) redoubled their efforts to attract new participants. When the group is a little bigger, like this, the workshop is much more dynamic and interesting and I personally find it more rewarding in general.

Chapter 8 of the Gita explicitly deals with the subject of death (and where we go after it).  This timeless issue raised some interesting discussions that revealed our natural fear of death and rebirth.

“Gitaphiles” may also like to note that Chapter 8 is where Prabhupada most often insists on the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra (and most often writes out the entire mantra, purport after purport!) as the highest means of attaining the Supreme Abode.

On Sunday night I was invited to lead some bhajan at our local Jagannatha Temple. I chose a nice soulful Hare Krishna melody.

This Saturday we’ll start JIVA 2009 – our longest and most important retreat of the year in Pandavas Paradise. It’s an intense one week long Krishna Conciousness training retreat. We have a full house, with bhaktas and bhaktins coming from all over the country. I am grateful that Prabhupada is keeping us busy!

Corpus Christi Retreat

Taking advantage of the Corpus Christi holiday, we held another yoga retreat in Pandavas Paradise. It was a four night event, starting on Wednesday and ending after lunch on Sunday.

About half the people came from distant cities for the retreat, some from Rio de Janeiro, some from São Paulo, and about half of them were new-comers. This is one of the characteristics of these retreats. It’s not that these people are Hare Krishnas going to a retreat, these are people who have had little or no contact with Hare Krishnas. For most of our visitors, this is their first contact with ISKCON devotees. And we make sure it’s a very sweet experience!

We also don’t hold back on the spirituality, or water it down, just to make it more “commercial”. These yoga retreats are really full on bhakti experiences: two aratiks a day, 30 minutes of japa, extra mantra sessions, 90 minutes of Krishna consciousness lectures a day… the works! Even the morning (hatha) yoga classes are infused with a good dose of bhakti thanks to our devotee yoga teacher, Radharani dd.  Practically all of our visitors leave with their own japa beads and at least one book, normally 2 and sometimes 3. The yoga retreats serve as springboards for the more spiritually inclined to go on to do weekend Gita courses, more retreats and some to become full on devotees.

One case in point: we had a lady, in her mid-thirties, come to our Carnaval retreat, just 4 months ago. It was her first contact with Krishna devotees. She loved it so much, she started doing our Gita courses and coming to our regular weekly programs in Brasilia. And now, next week, she’s off to New Zealand to join the women’s ashram at Gaura Yoga for 3 or more months of intense training and service!

Now that we have entered the dry season here, the weather for the Corpus Christi retreat was near perfect with shining sun and clear blue skies. As usual we enjoyed the scenic walks, crystal clear waterfalls, and plenty of healthy and tasty prasadam.

You can see more pictures of the retreat here.

Weekend Gita Workshop in Rio de Janeiro

This weekend we had the 2nd module of the Gita Workshop in Rio de Janeiro. We had 10 participants (11 if you count 5 month old baby Theo). Everyone enthusiastically drank the nectar of Krishna’s teachings. We covered chapters 3 and 4.

It never ceases to amaze me how the Gita endlessly gives us more and more, at each and every reading. This time, one of my realizations was that Krishna uses the word “karma” in the sense of ”that dharmic activity one should naturally perform according to one’s gunas“, translated by Prabhupada as “prescribed duty”. We normally think of “karma” as any sort of mundane activity, but here it seems Krishna uses it strictly in the sense of dharmic duty. When Krishna later introduces the term “vikarma“, “bad action”, we get further support for this idea. I also had a new take on the list of yajnas found in the end of the 4th Chapter (verses 25-29). This time I could see that Krishna glorifies them all, without pointing out any faults, even though the list includes things we normally “look down upon”, such as simple pranayama, giving up eating, and demigod worship.

I was also invited to give class at the Sunday Program in Rio’s Jagannatha Temple. I gave the class on verse 4.34, taking the opportunity to present a series of important points on the topic of guru. I described the culture of general respect we find in the Vedas, the psychological advantage of respecting the guru in absorbing the teachings transmitted by him/her, Prabhupada on gurus and how he urged us hundreds of times to become gurus following Lord C’s order*, definitions of a “pure devotee” and an “uttama-adhikari“, gurus in ISKCON and, lastly, the special position of Srila Prabhupada as founder-acharya of ISKCON. Several people expressed their gratitude for the class and for clearing up their confusion on the topic.

In short, it was an amazing weekend, packed full with nice service! Jaya Prabhupada! Jaya Jagannatha!

 

*“yare dekha, tare kaha ‘krsna’-upadesa amara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa”,  Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 7.128

Weekend Gita Workshop in Porto Alegre

It’s Gita Workshop time!

On the 17th we had our Brasilia Gita Sunday Workshop, in which we studied the 16th chapter. It was our biggest group yet. Some of the participants are from our local outreach efforts, but most are from our Yoga Retreats in Pandavas Paradise.

Last weekend I was in Porto Alegre, doing the 3rd module of our Weekend Gita Workshop. It’s always wonderful to study the Gita and it’s interesting to see how this weekend workshop suits all kinds of people.

For example, in the group I have the daughter of the local Temple President, Radharani (fourth from the left). Though her father is one of the greatest preachers in Brazil, she is still appreciating the course so much. Rossana (second from the left), has known the devotees for 25 years, but really appreciates this kind of deep systematic study. She wrote to me yesterday saying that this last module was one of the most amazing moments she’s had in association with devotees her whole life. Yet the workshop also satisfies the newcomers. Angela (fifth from the left), knew absolutely nothing about KC before starting these Gita workshops and she has practically no contact with devotees out of it. Yet, she is in awe of its contents and feels it’s changing her life.  This is the power of the Gita explained in the light of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings!

This weekend I fly off to Rio de Janeiro, for the second module of our second series of Weekend Gita Workshops there.

Holy Names for a Packed House

On Tuesday, the 12th of May, we were invited to participate in a cultural event organized by the Brazilian House of Congress. The theme of the night was India. They wanted to “spiritualize” the event, and asked us to open it with chanting.

Here is the video of the bhajan, lead by Carana Renu Dasi:

The event was held at the prestigious National Theatre in Brasilia. India is very much in vogue now, in Brazil, due to a very popular prime time soap opera. Devotees in Brazil are taking advantage of this to host “Indian Festivals”, sell more Gitas, etc.

Three years ago another prime time soap opera also hinted at Indian spirituality. Its main theme song was “Mantra” by a musician of the name Nando Reis (divine coincidence – Reis is kings in Portuguese, so we almost have King Nanda). Nando Reis wrote lyrics with the Hare Krishna mantra and invited our very charismatic Chandramukha Swami to play with them in their live shows. Here you can see Nando Reis with Chandramukha Swami and other Vrajabhumi devotees:

During this event they invited another musician to play this same tune. And we were asked to join in!

As such we had the chance to do some more chanting of Hare Krishna.

The place was packed! Though it seats 450, the corridors were full and we estimate there were some 650 people there.

It was a nice chance to share the holy names.

Our Dying World

I recently watched a rather dramatic video with dire warnings (to whom exactly I’m not sure, probably Caucasian Christians) about the upcoming muslim take over of Europe. And, no, the takeover is not by armies or terrorist attacks – but by babies!

 The video points out that native Europeans are dying off. The average fertility rate (that’s the number of children per woman) for the European Union (according to the CIA) is only 1.51, far below the 2.11 replacement value (that’s the value necessary just to maintain the current  population). They claim, however, that Muslim immigration and the far larger Muslim community fertility rate, is radically increasing the percentage of Europeans who are Muslims. They say that 50% of all babies born in Belgium are Muslims. And that by 2050 Germany will be a Muslim majority state.

I became interested in the subject and watched another alarmist documentary, called “Demographic Winter – The Decline of the Human Family”. This 50 minute documentary points out that humanity is dying off, with decreasing fertility rates worldwide, independent of race, religion and continent. This documentary points out the following major factors for this:

1) Increasing participation of women at the workplace, which leads them not to have time to have babies, as well as increasing the “cost” of interupting their carreers to have babies.

2) The sexual revolution, which makes sex come easy and with less and less strings attached.

3) The “divorce revolution”, infusing all marriages with a high degree of uncertainty, thus providing a negative stimulus for having children.

4) Prosperity. Men and women increasingly get married later in life, mostly because they are busy trying to become prosperous, thus having less time to have children. The current economic model of the world makes children an economic burden.

5) Innacurate Assumptions: a) Most of us still think that the world is threatened by a population explosion, when actually it’s just the opposite. The population of the world vastly increased only because longevity increased. But the current fertility rate for the world is below replacement values. b) The idea that less population is economically better is not true – statistics show that countries with the greatest decreases in population (Spain, Russia and Japan, for example) are having acute economic troubles. Increased populations actually promote economic growth and cheaper food prices.

The documentary suggests that the solution to the fertility rate crisis is to revert to a more paternalist society where women are again more dedicated to taking care of the home and children. They also stress the importance of strengthening the institution of  marriage.

All this made me think how carefully planned human society is. Krishna (through the Vedas and other scriptures), so carefully laid out the fundamental rules for a healthy society – the rules for the different varnas, the roles of men and women, the different ashrams, etc. Our attempts to rewrite the rules and traditions, especially in the last 100 years, are leading to massive chaos on so many levels. We are now literally dying off. I’m increasingly aware of how this current lifestyle we have come to consider “normal” is but an artificial bubble which is wreaking ecological havoc and encouraging unsustainable human behavior. I reckon that those of us who will live 50 years or more will see a world culture with more emphasis on religion and traditional values, as well as a much more sustainable, more agrarian and local, economic model.

To end of on a lighter note, I’ll leave you with Dilbert’s take on the death of capitalism:

Nrsimhadeva Festival in Pandavas Paradise

On Thursday, the 7th, we held a festival in Pandavas Paradise to celebrate the appearance of Lord Nrsimhadeva.

This is a picture of our Yoga-Nrsimha deity with Lakshmi Devi and Sesa Naga.

Some of our Brasilia congregation were inspired to drive the 250km to Pandavas Paradise, just to participate in the Festival, driving out the next day very early, arriving in time for their jobs.

Most of the participants were from the local town of Alto Paraíso, though none of them “native” townsfolk. Alto Paraíso attracts seekers and hippies from all over Brazil and even other countries. It’s really the most “far out” small country town I know.

All in all we had about 50 people there.

These locals just love a good Hare Krishna Festival. They’ll sit and chant along for hours. They also pay close attention to the talk. I spoke a little about Lord Nrsimhadeva and together we chanted the Nrismhadeva prayer from the 5th Canto of the SB, spoken by Prahalada Maharaja.

When it’s time for kirtan, they dance very, very enthusiastically!

And they eagerly anticipate the prasadam, eating with great gusto, getting seconds and thirds.

The prasadam for this festival was especially tasty. It was prepared by Karuna Rsi Prabhvi (picture above), from Switzerland.

During the festival I also celebrated my 40th b-day! The crowd chanted a nice “Happy Birthday” and a nice big cake was made.

We had a wonderful time in Krishna consciousness!

You can see more pictures of the festival here.